Manufacture of mineral wool



1945- M. E. CALLANDER MANUFACTURE OF MINERAL WOOL Fil'ed 1w 22, 1946 o INVENTOR MARSHALL E. CALLA DER ATTORNEY it for use as insulating material; but

Patented Aug. 14, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,382,296 MANUFACTURE or MINERAL woor. Marshall n. Callander, Columbia, Mo. Application November 22, 1940, Serial No. 366,613

4 Claims.

This invention relates, generally, to the manu-. facture of mineral wool, and improved process for manufacturing mineral wool in the form of so-called' bats or mats.

In the manufacture of mineral wool, it has heretofore been customary to fiberize the molten siliceous material and project the fibers through space for a time sufficient to permit them to become solidified, before they are collected, and before they come to rest. Many efforts have been made to improve the physical characteristics of mineral wool fibers and to reduce it to various physical forms in order to better adapt these efforts have beenlargely limited by adherence to the purpose of maintaining the integrity of the individual iiberized particles.

In the manufacture of bats or mats of min-, eral woohheretofore it has been customary to;

provide a suitable adhesive or binding substance which would render the masses thereof self sustaining.

The object of the present invention, generally stated, is to provide an improved mineral wool bat, and a process for making the same, whereby the bat will be inherently self sustaining.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art when the following description is read in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a view, somewhat diagrammatic in form, showing conventional mineral wool fiberizing apparatus, in connection with a collecting device constructed in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

' Figure 2 is a detail perspective view, showing in magnified proportions a tendrillated mineral wool body, typifying the structure produced in accordance with the present invention.

In accordance with the present invention, generally stated, siliceous material of the character generally, employed for the manufacture of mineral wool is reduced to a molten condition, and fiberized, as by impingement with a stream of steam or other gas projected through a nozzle in accordance with the well-known practice. The present invention is characterized, however. by the feature that the fiberized mineral wool particles are intercepted in their flight before they become completely solidified and, as intercepted, collected and reduced to the form of bats. By thus intercepting the flight of fiberized particles of siliceous material before they are completely solidified, and collecting a group of them together, a plurality of the fibers become particularly to an '2 autogenous connection of autogeneously connected at their points of contact, and result in the production of a tendrillated body of mineral wool consisting of a plurality of originally discrete fibers which, how- 5 ever, are autogeneously connected. Any suitable barrier may be employed for thus intercepting the. flight of the fiberized particles of mineral wool, and the barrier may be maintained in the trajectory of the flberized particles in at a distance from the fiberizing mechanism such that, while the particles are fiberized before contacting the barrier, they are incompletely solidified, and in a physical condition such that upon-contact with another such fiber, they will mutually solidify in an geneous relation. For example in a typical installation'it was observed that when the barrier was arranged less than about four feet from the fiberizing device the particles were insufiiciently formed (at the time of impact) to produce a commercially desired product, while when the distance between the barrier and the fiberizing apparatus was increased beyond eleven feet the particles had so completely solidified before impact that the individual fibers did desired extent; Hence on this instance a critical distance was established at four to eleven feet, with optimum results at about eight feet, but obviously with different minerals, at different temperatures, and under other conditions 'the critical distance may be less or greater. m v

With some batch compositions, the formed but incompletely solidified fibers resist autogenous connection with each other. apparently due to surface tension characteristics. such cases, in order to minimize such inherent resistance to autogenous connection, and in any case to facilitate the autogenous connection be- 40 tween individually formed but yet incompletely solidified fibers, a flux of the character generally employed in soldering operations may be introduced. For example, soda ash in dry powder form. may be commingled with the blast, either before or after the molten material is impinged, using for example, about one pound soda ash per ton of mineral wool. In such cases, the soda ash becomes intimately mixed with the fibers during their travel and deposition, and apparently acts to reducethe surface tension between separate fibers, with the result that autogenous connection is facilitated. Resinous compounds of the character generally employed as soldering fluxes act similarly. These may be diluted with a suitable solvent, and sprayed into the blast in a mannot occur to the Accordingly, in

waterproofing treatments oi the char which those ed in the art of mine al wool manufacture familiar. v 1

A movable may advantageously be ployed. so that when the desired cunt of aterial has been collected thereon it a y be removed from the zone of the trajectory of the flberized particles. and the collected material removed from it. Such a for example, take mesh may be employed as the barrier material.

For example, wire Referring now to the drawing for an illustrative may, for example, be The endless barrier Bis mounted upon a pair of in the embodiment shown, in substantially vertical alignment. Similarly, the flexible barrier 9'.

is mounted upon a pair of rolls I 2 and i3," which are in substantially vertical alignment with rolls frame H is provided 101 corresponding to the thickness of the bat to be produced. Adjacent the space 85 a suitable device for stripping the materolls l0 and ,arranged is provided. In the emoperation of the device. the velocity at which the barriers a and 9 are moved may be reduced; and conversely, to reduce the thickness of the deposit, the velocity of the barriers may be increased; so that accurate control of the thickness of deposit is attainable.

referredto. vice shown in the drawing. the mineral wool partials will begin to collect upon barriers 8 and 9 at points such as 20 and 2|, where the barriers the desired thickness is attained as shown at 22 and 23. As the deposit of wool upon barriers 8 and 9 move into the bight zone 24, additional fiberized material is separat fibers of the ordinary type. 80 long as there is'a li-beral'presence oi tendrillated bodies of the general type 'illustrated'in Figure 2 distributed throughout the mass of collected mineral barriers may be arranged at a selected bight and" the velocities properly coordinated to produce a bat of anydesired thickness whichis characterized by the feature that both its extended surfaces assaaoo are finished in situ, so that no trimming or smoothing operation is required. Indeed such is a decided advantage whether or not the wool is characterized by the presence of tendrillated bodies as herein described.

Obviously, such mineral wool fibers as do not strik barriers 8 and 9, or such as do not remain deposited thereon, accumulate on the floor of the confining space, as shown at 32, and may be periodically removed for disposition as bulk wool.

Obviously, when and if desired, suitable lubricants, binding agents, and the like, which have heretofore been commonly employed in the art of manufacturing mineral wool bats, may be utilized in connection with the present invention to supplement the binding, strengthening, and stabilizing action of the tendrillated bodies above described in the finished masses. I

From the foregoing description, it is believed that those skilled in the art will readily appreciate the advantages of the present invention, and fully perceive the improved character of the masses, bats or mats of mineral wool produced in accordance with the present invention, where the fibrous material is collected upon a barrier before the particles have completely solidified. While in the foregoin description, and in the accompanying drawing, a complete embodiment has been disclosed for the purpose of illustration, it is not to be understood that the invention is limited to the details of the foregoing disclosure; but on the contrary, that the features thereof may be applied and utilized in avariety of forms and adaptations. It is therefore to be distinctly understood that such modifications,

adaptations and the use of such individual features and combinations of features as do not depart fromthe spirit of this invention, are, although not specifically described herein, contemplated by and within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is: a

1. In the art of making mineral wool, the

process of forming coherent fluffy masses, comprising, fiberizing molten siliceous material and projecting the and collecting the particles in flight before the same have completely solidified upon a collection of similar particles.

2. In the art of making mineral wool, the process of forming coherent fiufly masses, comf prising, fiberizing molten siliceous material and projecting the discrete fiberized particles in space, interposing a foraminous barrier in the trai ectory of the particles in a position whereat the particles are incompletely solidified fiberized particles, and removing the material from the barrier after the particles have solidified.

3. In the art of making mineral wool, the process of forming coherent fiuffy masses, comprising, fiberizing molten siliceous material and projecting the discrete fiberized particles in space,

intercepting the flight of the particles before the same have completely solidified upon converging moving barriers, and removing the solidified fibers from the barriers adjacent the point of convergence.

4. In the art of making mineral wool bats, the process comprising, collecting mineral wool masses on a plurality of surfaces, and superposing the mass collected on one surface upon a mass collected on another surface and, concurrently with such superposition, interposing incompletely solidified mineral wool particles between the respective masses so that upon solidification of said interposed particles some of the fibers in one mass will be autogenously connected with some of the fibers in the other.

MABSHALLE. CAILANDER.

discrete fiberized particles in space, 

